Weekly Nostalgia: Still Life

I've had quite an obsession this past year with discovering early post-hardcore bands. I'm not speaking of the obvious influences of Jawbox, Sunny Day Real Estate and Jawbreaker - ones I am already familiar with - no, I'm speaking more along the lines of a band like Still Life. Formed in Los Angeles, California at the tip end of the 80's, the band started to take shape around 1991 and released a series of 7" records. In 1996, the band released From Angry Heads With Skyward Eyes, one of the first true emocore/screamo records in the first wave of bands in the 90's. The song lengths on the album stick out, as there is not one track below the five minute mark, as each one slowly builds and builds into the next. The band made it all the way to 2003 before disbanding. The release of 2002's Limitations, Boundaries and Failures and 2003's The Incredible Sinking Feeling showed bits of a progressive departure from the band's earlier work, yet sit as glowing reminder of what once was. For every band added to the rosters of Level Plane and Equal Vision Records, this is where it all started. At least that's what I discovered thus far. [Insert argument of things starting with Rites of Spring in the replies.]

Other suggestions for that era....Farside, Guilt, Split Lip/Chamberlain....pretty much any of the old Revelation or Initial records catalogues will never still you wrong when it comes to this stuff.

oh yes! I've been really into the old Crank! Records catalog too. I've always loved Christie Front Drive, Mineral and Boys Life, but I've been trying to discover the harder side of the early scene...but yeah, Revelation Records ftw!

oh yes! I've been really into the old Crank! Records catalog too. I've always loved Christie Front Drive, Mineral and Boys Life, but I've been trying to discover the harder side of the early scene...but yeah, Revelation Records ftw!

crank! records rules.

i've never even heard of this band, but i'll probably check them out now.

depends. There's been a few nostalgic posts that I was familiar with, but not nostalgic for me because I didn't listen to them. I look at nostalgia as a way of showcasing bands that either a) had impact on my music taste or b) impact on later tastes. I know this choice is sort of obscure to outside circles, but I think the band holds influential water and worth - rediscovering or possibly discovering for the first time...

sorry this wasn't about the surface...I pride myself on not being an elitist, but not forgetting my elders either...

depends. There's been a few nostalgic posts that I was familiar with, but not nostalgic for me because I didn't listen to them. I look at nostalgia as a way of showcasing bands that either a) had impact on my music taste or b) impact on later tastes. I know this choice is sort of obscure to outside circles, but I think the band holds influential water and worth - rediscovering or possibly discovering for the first time...

sorry this wasn't about the surface...I pride myself on not being an elitist, but not forgetting my elders either...

Sorry, I didn't mean to be a prick or anything, and I hope nothing I say comes off as sarcastic. In my mind I guess I just assumed that the purpose of Weekly Nostalgia was to remind everyone of a great band that a lot of people have nostalgia for and to get a discussion going between folks who want to reminisce and, also, to showcase the music for the younger generation and for the people who didn't pay attention the first time around.

After thinking about it, I think this really does fit the latter part of that description for the most part. The only problem is that the thread won't blow up and spark a lot of interest because not enough people know who this is to get a big discussion going.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be a prick or anything, and I hope nothing I say comes off as sarcastic. In my mind I guess I just assumed that the purpose of Weekly Nostalgia was to remind everyone of a great band that a lot of people have nostalgia for and to get a discussion going between folks who want to reminisce and, also, to showcase the music for the younger generation and for the people who didn't pay attention the first time around.

After thinking about it, I think this really does fit the latter part of that description for the most part. The only problem is that the thread won't blow up and spark a lot of interest because not enough people know who this is to get a big discussion going.

Agreed.

Would've been a much better choice to pick one of the big ones, make the first paragraph a tribute and then just talk about bands they've influenced who you're very likely to be into if you like the first band, especially seeing as this isn't even a "nostalgic" band for the writer.

Would've been a much better choice to pick one of the big ones, make the first paragraph a tribute and then just talk about bands they've influenced who you're very likely to be into if you like the first band, especially seeing as this isn't even a "nostalgic" band for the writer.

Maybe they're not as nostalgic as say Thursday or Poison the Wel to mel...but since discovering them, they seem to be a huge influence on the bands that are nostalgic to me...It's great to hear what bands influence the bands I love...curiosity didn't kill this cat, it only made my knowledge stronger...